Douglas Taren, Ph.D., MS, focuses primarily on maternal and child nutrition with a special emphasis on decreasing health disparities within low-income populations and countries. His studies and teaching experiences in maternal and child health have been conducted in several Latin American, Asian, and African countries with funding from numerous organizations, including USAID, FAO, NIH, CDC, and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. These projects have focused on food security programs with organizations such as Save the Children, Counterparts International, TANGO International, and the World Food Program. He has worked on improving programs that prevent and treat vitamin A deficiency in Nepali pregnant women and young children and effectiveness studies on decreasing mother-to-child HIV transmission in Kenya. He also worked on improving dietary assessment methods and community-based programs to decrease childhood obesity. He has served as a resource person to the World Health Organization Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group Monitoring and Evaluation Subgroup on Guidelines for the Assessment of Vitamin A and Iron Status in Populations. He is currently the director of the Western Region Public Health Training Center (WRPHTC) for HRSA Region 9 (Arizona, Nevada, California, Hawaii, and the US Affiliated Pacific Islands, including Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, or the Republic of Palau. The WRPHTC works to strengthen the public health workforce based on Council on Linkages Core Public Health Competencies and also focuses on training the public health workforce on issues related to nutrition, physical activity, and obesity.